Magnetically codeable and sortable passenger ticket and method thereof

ABSTRACT

A multi-sheet business form having an upper sheet, a lower sheet, and an intermediate sheet, with the intermediate sheet carrying, on its lower surface, both encapsulated and nonencapsulated magnetizable ink having about 20 percent by weight of iron oxide powder.

United States Patent 3,912,305 Fischer 1 Oct. 14, 1975 [54] MAGNE'HCALLY CODEABLE AND FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS SORTABLE PASSENGER TICKET AND METHOD THEREOF 1,082,282 5/1960 Germany OTHER PUBLICATIONS Chemical Abstracts, Vol. 55, 25095(e), 1961.

Primary Examiner-Lawrence Charles Attorney, Agent, or Firm.lames G. Staples ABSTRACT A multi-sheet business form having an upper sheet, a lower sheet, and an intermediate sheet, with the intermediate sheet carrying, on its lower surface, both encapsulated and non-encapsulated magnetizable ink having about 20 percent by weight of iron oxide powder.

7 1 Claim, 3 Drawing Figures MAGNETICALLY CODEABLE AND SORTABLE PASSENGER TICKET AND METHOD THEREOF This invention relates generally to duplicating paper, and specifically to business forms having means for impressing magnetizable ink characters which are machine translatable onto a receiving surface from an overlying sheet.

Ordinary carbon paper is today a widely used mode of duplicating typed or written material. In the case of business forms a generally equivalent mode of duplication comprises the application of a carbonized material to the backside or under surface of an originating sheet which thereby makes it unnecessary to interleaf carbon tissue between the originating and duplicated sheets. The latter mode is frequently referred to as spot carbonized paper.

A paste like coating material incorporating carbon, or other desired pigments, waxes and linseed oil is used in the manufacture of carbon paper and spot carbonized paper. ln both forms, in order to effectively transfer an image from the originating sheet to the receiving sheet it is necessary that the material transferred to the receiving sheet have a slightly moist or viscous condition.

Problems arise in this type of duplicating material due to the fact that because of its slightly moist or viscous condition the impression materials tend to smudge or smear if handled carelessly. Further, the impression materials dry out over long periods of time and become less able to transfer clear impressions to receiving sheets.

It should also be noted that it is most important in the use of many types of business fonns such as airline tickets, charge tickets used with credit cards, data andaccounting portions of car rental agreements, and many other business forms that some of the information appearing thereon be adaptable to automatic reading, sorting and tabulating. It is also frequently desirable that such information be coded in such manner that it can be automatically read into a computer to assist in tabulating results, forwarding bills or invoices, and making charges against, or addressing copies or notices to, other parties involved in the transaction.

Automatic reading, sorting, tabulating and subsequent processing transactions are not always feasible with carbon paper and spot carbonized paper type forms for several reasons including smearing and indistinct image transferance from the original impression to a subsequent sheet.

The foregoing disadvantages may be overcome by the use of magnetizable ink incorporated in a coating on one surface of an impression receiving sheet which can be transferred onto a receiving sheet.

The use of magnetizable ink has been highly developed in connection with bank checks and merchandize coupons but generally only in applications in which large numbers of copies bearing identical code characters are required. When a large number of sheets, each carrying identical magnetizable ink characters, is required, the ink is applied with a conventional printing press.

When a single set of numbers is to be encoded or applied to a single copy the application is done with the use of an encoder. An encoder is a typewriter-like machine which prints a set of numbers in magnetizable ink on a single sheet. The encoder is widely used, for, example, in the banking system to type magnetic characters representing the amount of the check onto a bank check, said bank check having had previously impressed thereon the account number of the maker and the code number of the bank on which the check is drawn by a conventional printing process.

The advantages of magnetizable ink as contrasted to visual characters has been well documented. Mutilization of a document, the presence of foreign substances, stray marks and other obfuscations of the document short of elimination of the magnetizable ink will not prevent accurate sorting, tabulation and use of said document.

The invention includes therefore the incorporating of magnetizable ink in a duplicating paper or business form in a location such that, upon application of a Writing instrument to the upper surface of the top sheet of the form, magnetizable ink characters can be impressed upon an underlying sheet. Such writing instrument may be an encoder as described above, raised type appearing as embossed characters or numerals on a credit card, or a printing slug which is pressed on a top sheet on the back of which magnetizable duplicating material has been placed. By using multiple duplicating sheets several copies of the magnetizable ink characters can be reproduced.

An example of the type of magnetizable ink herein referred to is disclosed in US. Pat. Reissue 26,049. Such magnetizable ink will not however transfer duplicate indicia to a receiving sheet. To accomplish this it is necessary that the magnetizable material be combined with other substances similar to those used in making carbon paper.

One suitable combination is the following:

The R69 2033 Vehicle may consist of conventional waxes and oils.

Depending on the thickness and type of paper to be used, the color of pigment desired, the rapidity of drying desired, the shelf life (length of time before all forms are to be used) needed and other factors, the type and proportions of waxes, oils, pigments and toner may be varied.

To obviate these problems and difficulties the magnetizable ink may be encapsulated in a viscous or slightly liquid solution in minute gelatinous capsules, each of which effectively protects the pigment or ink from smearing unless and until the capsule is ruptured by a sharp, localized pressure, such as the impact of a pen, pencil, typewriter, or printing press.

Accordingly, a primary object of the invention is to provide a business form and/or a duplicating paper having an impression creating material thereon, such as magnetizable ink, which, by application of pressure, can be transferred to a receiving surface.

Another object is a business form or duplicating paper as above described in which at least a portion of the impression creating material is contained in pressure rupturable capsules, said capsules being of such a consistency as to preclude smearing under normal handling conditions.

A further object is to provide a collection of business forms, one or more of which includes a coating of magnetizable ink capable of being transferred to an underlying surface.

Other objects and advantages will be apparent from the following specific description of the invention.

The invention is illustrated more or less diagrammatic'ally in the accompanying drawing wherein:

FIG. 1 is a top view of a specific embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a side elevation, to an expanded vertical scale, of the business form illustrated in FIG. I; and

FIG. 3 is a side elevation of a second embodiment in which all impression receiving surfaces may have magnetically codeable characters impressed thereon.

A conventional airline ticket is indicated generally at in FIG. 1. The top surface of the top data sheet as illustrated in FIG. 1 includes several well defined character impression areas, including a user identification area 11, an origination area 12, a destination area 13, a tariff area 14, and an accounting area 15. Each of areas 11 15 is intended to receive impressions or characters applicable to a specific event, such as, for example, a passage from a given location to a given location on a certain date by a certain person for a certain fare as typified by an airline ticket. Pre-printed data, such as the ticket number, is indicated at 16, this pre-printed data being applied at the time of manufacture of the form by any conventional means, such as a printing press. Usually the pre-printed data will appear on all sheets of the form, and usually in the same relative area sheet to sheet.

Referring now to FIG. 2 it will be noted that the airline ticket which has been chosen as a specific embodiment of the invention consists essentially of a top data sheet 17, an intermediate data sheet 18, a tissue sheet 19, and a customer retention data sheet 20.

Top data sheet 17 carries, on its under surface, a coating 22 which includes magnetizable ink. The coating may be present over the entire under surface of the ink carrier sheet or, alternatively, only over a given area as would be true for example in the case of typical spot carbonized paper. Thus, for example, the area indicated generally at 23 which underlies the preprint'ed ticket number, and the area, not shown, which underlies the issuers identification area, indicated at 24, may not carry the magnetizable ink coating.

Intermediate data sheet 18, whose upper surface may be, in essence, a duplication of the appearance illustrated in FIG. 1 of the top data sheet 17, carries, in this instance, no magnetizable ink coating on its undersurface.

Tissue sheet 19 carries a coating of magnetizable ink indicated at 25. Coating 25 may be coextensive with the under surface of tissure sheet 19, or it may be applied in a fashion analogous to the spot carbonizing coating 22. For ease and economy of manufacture, the tissue sheet 19 will generally have a coextensive coating of magnetizable ink.

Retention data sheet 20, like intermediate data sheet 18, may carry a substantial duplication of the indicia indicated in FIG. 1. As will be apparent from FIGS. 1 and 2, the retention data sheet is substantially coextensive with the dimensions of the balance of the sheets, and is disposed so as to receive any impressions applied to upper data sheet 17. t

The sheets are secured one to another along the left edge portions by any conventional means, such as an appropriate adhesive, indicated for example at 26, to form a unitary assembly.

Preferably, the magnetizable ink is encapsulated. That is, a portion or all of the ink is contained, in the form of minute, discrete droplets, in gelatinous capsules which are rupturable by pressure applied to upper data sheet 17 as by a printing press, an encoder, a hand held printing stamp or writing instrument. The magnetizable ink may be contained in a paste like vehicle con.- sisting of wax and linseed oil similar to the vehicle which contains the carbon pigment in ink prepared for spot carbonizing. The best proportions of wax and linseed oil depends on the paper to be used, the method and equipment used to apply ink coating, and the desired hardness of the dry material. It will be understood that these factors are well within the skill of those in the art, and since they do not per se comprise the invention, they are not further described herein in detail.

Likewise, no claim is made to encapsulated materials per se, since methods of formulation of encapsulated materials, such as adhesives, are described and illustrated in the Green et al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,800,457 and 2,800,458 to which reference is herein made for further disclosure of the method of encapsulating the magnetizable ink and specific physical characteristics of the resultant product.

In the embodiment of FIG. 3, each data sheet intended to be retained as a record is magnetically codea ble after receipt of a character forming impression. Thus, for example, upon application of a magnetizable ink character to the upper surface of data sheet 27 by a magnetic ink encoder, said character will similarly be applied to intermediate data sheet 28 by virtue of rupture of capsules in coated magnetic ink layer 29 carried on the under surface of tissue sheet 30. Likewise, said character will be applied simultaneously to bottom data sheet 31 by virtue of rupture of encapsulated magnetic ink particles which form layer 32 on the under surface of second tissue sheet 33, After completion of the encoding operation data sheets 27, 28, 31 are separated from the coated tissue sheets 30, 33, as by separating along a conventional perforation or other line of weakness at the left edge of the assembly.

One of the great advantages of the invention is that the record keeping process is greatly facilitated. Magnetic ink readers are more accurate and faster than visual scanners as a feed in for computers for example. Further, often a duplicate copy of material typed in magnetizable ink is needed. By coating the backside of a sheet the magnetizable impression can be made on the receiving sheet at the same instant an impression is made on the originating sheet. This may be extremely useful for a second user or another department in a commercial establishment handling commercial transactions. Likewise, the duplicate record may find extensive use as a mode of conveniently storing duplicate records in a place of safe-keeping, thus facilitating the running of an independent audit of accounts in the event of mutilation or loss of the original record. In the event the characters on each data sheet are magnetically readable, comparison time can be reduced to a minimum since the original character receiving data sheet and each additional character receiving data sheet can be separately magnetically sorted and read, and thereafter compared.

Possibly the greatest potential use of this development is in connection with use of charge tickets such as those now commonly employed at gasoline service stations which are used in connection with credit cards. It may for example be possible to use the present invention with a small encoder capable of writing amounts up to, say, $100, which encoder may be incorporated in the roller type printer into which credit cards are inserted at gasoline service stations.

Although a specific and general description of the invention has been herein set forth, it will at once be apparent to those skilled in the art that modifications may be made within the scope of the invention. Accordingly, it is intended that the scope of the invention be limited not by the scope of the foregoing description but solely by the scope of the hereinafter appended claims when interpreted in the light of the pertinent prior art.

I claim:

1. In a business form,

a first data sheet,

said first data sheet having an upper impression receiving surface and a lower surface,

a second data sheet,

said second data sheet having an upper impression receiving surface and a lower surface, said second data sheet being disposed beneath said first data sheet,

a magnetizable ink carrier sheet located between said first and second data sheets for forming a magnetizable ink character on the upper impression receiving surface of the second data sheet upon impression of a character on the first data sheet,

said magnetizable ink carrier sheet carrying encapsulated and non-encapsulated magnetizable ink on its lower surface only,

said first data sheet, said carrier sheet and said second data sheet being in abutting contact with one another throughout their entire working surface areas,

the encapsulated portion of said magnetizable ink being encapsulated in a viscous or slightly liquid solution in minute gelatinous capsules which are rupturable from the pressure of a character impression instrument on the upper surface of the first data sheet,

the portion of said magnetizable ink which is encapsulated being no more than the amount needed to prevent smudging of the impression receiving surface of a data sheet which is in underlying, abutting contact with the under surface of the carrier sheet which carries said encapsulated and nonencapsulated magnetic ink,

said magnetic ink including about 20% by weight of iron oxide powder, and

means for securing the sheets into a unitary assembly along one edge portion thereof. 

1. In a business form, a first data sheet, said first data sheet having an upper impression receiving surface and a lower surface, a second data sheet, said second data sheet having an upper impression receiving surface and a lower surface, said second data sheet being disposed beneath said first data sheet, a magnetizable ink carrier sheet located between said first and second data sheets for forming a magnetizable ink character on the upper impression receiving surface of the second data sheet upon impression of a character on the first data sheet, said magnetizable ink carrier sheet carrying encapsulated and non-encapsulated magnetizable ink on its lower surface only, said first data sheet, said carrier sheet and said second data sheet being in abutting contact with one another Throughout their entire working surface areas, the encapsulated portion of said magnetizable ink being encapsulated in a viscous or slightly liquid solution in minute gelatinous capsules which are rupturable from the pressure of a character impression instrument on the upper surface of the first data sheet, the portion of said magnetizable ink which is encapsulated being no more than the amount needed to prevent smudging of the impression receiving surface of a data sheet which is in underlying, abutting contact with the under surface of the carrier sheet which carries said encapsulated and nonencapsulated magnetic ink, said magnetic ink including about 20% by weight of iron oxide powder, and means for securing the sheets into a unitary assembly along one edge portion thereof. 